Independence Day - The Slideshow

Wonderful day - Parade, Pool, and Daddy's special fireworks show :-)

Happy Birthday Reuben And Jacob

A Laser Tag Party!

Faith Is 7!!!!

Faith had a very fun bowling party. Very calm and orderly with 17 kids bowling, eating pizza, and devouring lots of cake :-)

Spring and Purim are Here

Nice outside. Trees blooming. Salmon on the grill. And, Purim revelry. Great Saturday.

Fairfax Fair

Great time at the fair today. Kids are starting to really enjoy the rides. Faith and Reuben loved the little Caterpillar roller coaster, while Jacob was Mister daring doing the big Swing several times.
We went with Ken and Amanda. Amanda is the real dare devil getting Jacob and Reuben to join her on Crazy Mouse, the big kids roller coaster (still pretty small). Reuben got off and told me "I am never going on the Crazy Mouse again". Though he was laughing while he said it.


Couple of movies coming...

Happy Birthday Reuben and Jacob

We had the boys party yesterday at a cool kids science lab. Everyone had a blast (pun intended).

More of the Party

Very fun party despite the contest that sprung up on who had the messiest cupcake face...

Faith's Birthday Party

Pottery class with 17 kids !

Passover a Lookback :-)

I never had a chance to post any Passover Seder pictures, but late than never. Here are a couple of Four Question movies that I just couldn't resist posting.

Maryland Science Center (Baltimore Inner Harbor)

Yesterday we met several friends up at the Science museum in Baltimore. Most of them are regulars to the museum, but it was our first time. We were there from 11-5; we got our money's worth and everyone liked.
Afterwards 11 of us met at Bertuccis in Columbia for dinner. Didn't get home until about 9pm. Long day, but fun.

The Snow Has Ended

Finally!! Started digging out again at 3pm. Kids quickly learned the king of mountain gain on the piles of snow. I think we got another 10", but hard to tell because there were lots of drifts. The wind was still blowing fierce as I shoveled; overall felt brutal!!
But, I should make out tomorrow and be back at the office. Not the kids; school is already closed for tomorrow and Friday. More king of the hill game.

Soccer Banquet

Pizza, certificates, medals, and brownies, who could ask for anything more!!

Good Old Fashioned Fun

Nice being back from California. Beautiful Fall days this weekend. Kids all played outside, played in the leaves, and even worked some. Reuben even earned $10 helping our neighbor rake and bag his leaves. Definitely my last year paying a service to do my leaves!

Last soccer game of the season

Today was the end of the season. A great season all around. Everyone improved their play, though a bit a of setback on skills these last two weeks where we didn't have mid-week practices. Most of all I think the whole really likes soccer and I hate to admit, but I had fun coaching.

Block Party

We had our block party today. Good turn out and good food. Reuben had a fever yesterday and this morning he was still feeling bad, so he stayed up on our driveway. I deputized him as photography and he did a great job!

Nice September Day

Packed up the tent this morning (got it all to fit in original bag). Then we had some friends over; first Susan and then Ken and Amanda joined us. Spent most of the day outside in the yard or in the front court. Even got Jacob riding his bike...

He likes to go fast making sharp turns nearly missing parked cars (not always nearly missing).
Meanwhile, Reuben is meeting the challenge of "The Hill"...

Nice Swim

Been working like a dog finishing a proposal, but today I was able to break away in the afternoon to join some friends at our pool. I was amazed to see how well Faith is now swimming. She is even diving under the water to pick up toys on the bottom. She has really picked up a lot at camp. Swim lessons every day for a few weeks has certainly trumped years of once a week lessons.

Afterward we all came back to our house for a great veggie lasagna that Karen made. It was really awesome.

Early July 4th?

Ken and Amanda came over this afternoon. Lot of fun all around. Got ice cream, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, ate some watermelon, and.... Ken brought some fireworks!!!

Friends Over

This evening we had a couple of families over bringing the kid total to 7. Our initial plan was to be in the backyard most of the time, but after a week of rain, it was just too wet. So we mostly played out front... some hoops, some bikes, and then inside some Wii. Fun time for all.

Rolling Thunder and other things...

We went this morning to watch the motor cycles start their trip into DC as part of Rolling Thunder for Memorial Day. They launch from the Harley dealer in Fairfax City and then meet up with the rest of country's riders at the Pentagon. Not sure of the official count, but I bet >1000 bikes went out of Fairfax.





Then I did some more cutting around the front of the house. Probably got about 1/2 done and I have yet to touch any of the spirea. Its overgrown but just now starting to flower; so I want to wait. And I haven't cleaned up all the clippings yet; a quick storm came through and provided a good excuse to quit. Maybe tomorrow I can find time to finish the junipers in the front, very overgrown since I don't think I cut them last year. And the backyard is a real mess that will be a two-weekender! For now the front looks passable.


Finally, last week's rains finally tested my new sump pump. It is very quiet operating and only seems to turn on for maybe 10 seconds at a time every couple of minutes as it was pouring. Water never got high enough to see, or trigger any concern. So today, I cut a hole in my leaf guard for the walk out basement area so I can hopefully keep some of the debris out of the sump pit.